STRANDED AT ALPHA'S CAMP

Astrid's Point of View

I was hidden in the trees right now. I look to my right and I can see my younger sister, Denise. She was crouched with a lot of concentration evident in her expression. Sometimes, her level of concentration was scary to me. She had a knack for tuning every and anything out when she was this focused. Right now, we were waiting in the shadows. It was rumored that there was a pack of werewolves around us. That was our objective. To find these werewolves and kill them. That's who we are. We're werewolf hunters, the best of them in New York.

A movement in the corner of my eye pulls me back to reality and so I sit up. There one was. Honestly, everything about him screamed basic. He had brown fur just like every other wolf and from the way he walked I could tell he wasn't an alpha or even a beta. Those ones moved with a certain confidence and leap to their footsteps. He was just an omega. This would be more like a pity kill. I look at Denise and she gives me a subtle nod. We both pull out our arrows and shoot at him. He lets out an outraged cry but we continue. He should be alone so it shouldn't be a problem. He was actually even a detour. We were on our way home when we spotted him and decide it would be fun to get up our kill count. He falls to the ground, weakened by our silver arrows. The silver poisoning would get to him really fast. It would only work to slow down his healing while we finish up the job.

"You want to do the honors?" Denise asks, smiling at me. I have never gotten to do this part before. I swing down from the tree in a jiffy and with my knife, stab his chest. I pull out his heart and watch as he turns black from all the silver. We get our arrows and are soon about to leave when we hear footsteps coming our direction. Oh no. I look at Denise and in a split second, we were on our heels. I thought we were alone. We have a head start so we should be fine. I look back and I can see one of them on our heels. He was much faster than others and was catching up. I shoot an arrow at him, and he tries to continue chasing even though he was already weakened. The last thing I see are his blue gray eyes as we leave the environ. We get home where mum was waiting with the rest of the community.

"What took you so long?" She asks, worried and trying to suppress my smiles, I raise the heart in my bag. She comes to hug me and congratulate me on my first heart. My other siblings crowd around me but I didn't understand the fuss. Sure, it was my first heart but I wished it was something more important, not the lowly omega. After all the jubilation, we have a toast to the event. Mum stands up to speak.

"I am so proud of you, Astrid. Since the day we took you in, we have never regretted it. You have been a sweet girl and the best to work with. To this heart and many more to come. Cheers!" Mum says, before she sits. I used to call her Ms. Wilson before but now I can call her mum. They had become my family now.

Before all this, I was with my actual parents. We lived in the suburbs and things were going great. I was an only child. Mum and dad loved each other and we were happy. I was in school and I had my own driver and everything. I went to school one day with my usual packed lunch and snacks. Dad wanted to drive me that day. It was like he already knew what would happen. He drops me off at school and things are going great. I played with the rest of the children's and classes were fine. Soon, school was over and I walked to the car park. Usually, my driver was waited there but for some reason, he was absent. It was from here I started feeling like something was wrong. He was never late. Ms, Joanne, my teacher walked to me. I had been waiting for almost an hour and yet, there was no sign of him. The school was practically empty by now.

"Oh poor Astrid. You don't have to worry. I'm sure he would soon be here. Come stay in the classroom with me, let's make a phone call home." She says kindly, offering me her hand. I take her hand and she leads me to the classroom. We sit together while she tries to call. The phone rang repeatedly but there was no reply. She offers to take me home and I make her stop me a block away from my house. Something just felt wrong but also, I wanted to make my parents feel guilty for forgetting about me. I walk towards our house. There was a trail from our house that led into a forest. There were black cars in front of the house and from here, I could see smoke. It looked like there was a fire. Something was terribly wrong. I could feel it. The men in black were also scary. Instead of going home, I ran into the trail that led to the forest from our house. I hid there, hoping it wasn't what I thought it was. There was a lot of noise and I was so scared, I was shaking. I drank some water to calm myself. It had already gotten dark but I didn't want to risk it.

I was beginning to feel hungry so I brought out my leftover lunch. I had Mac and cheese left so I swallowed the cold sticky food, trying to hold it down. I also had some juice too. I'm grateful that mum packed so much. Usually, I complain that the food is too much but if it wasn't , I would have starved. I lay on my backpack, still in my uniform, gazing at the stars. I heard the sound of revving cars. The people would have left but I was still too scared to come out of my hiding. So, shivering from the cold, I finally fell asleep due to how tired I was. I was woken by the sound of voices. I was already scared. What if the people had found me? Slowly, I open my eyes to meet a female staring at me curiously.

"Hello."